Mark Stopha - Alaska Wild Salmon Company

Person standing on rocky shore beside canoe near forested lake

Jesse 2026

Jesse got here the day Pat and Sean left. I thought he got here two days later. Luckily, I asked him to pick up a sink part when he came on Tuesday, and that’s when he said I’m coming today!

Since it was a rainy day, and we would not get back to the boat until late in the day, we smoked and canned fish I had on hand, as he wanted to learn. We finished canning after midnight, so we slept in the next day. I learned something new on this batch of fish: the meat and skin and bone and fat left under the pectoral fins (which I cut off when I butcher the salmon) make great material for smoking and canning. I also tried using my 10 trays Cabela’s food dehydrator to dry the fish after taking it out of the brine, and that works great, too.

On day 2, we headed out in the morning. I decided to head to the outside waters as this might be the only day it wasn’t lumpy out there, as the north west wind was to return tomorrow. We made it to Ulitka at midday. No one was fishing at Ignace when we ran bay. Or at Gertrudis. Only one boat was fishing on either side of Ulitka when we got there. Uh oh.

We fished all afternoon. I caught a ling cod. We shook several pinks and a chum. We caught no king or coho. We tied up to my personal buoy and had ling cod and salad for dinner.

We were up at sunrise on Day 3. We fished in the lee of St Joseph’s Island at Hawg Rock to avoid the lump at Ulitka. I caught a smaller yellow eye rockfish and a ling cod. We moved to Hole in the Wall, and finally found some coho. And even better, only had to shake a pink or two. We also caught a nice chicken halibut. I set my skate and anchored up at midday to limit our processing time for the day. I saw a lot fewer charter and trollers out here so far this trip. I cooked rockfish for Jesse and I had ling cod for dinner.

We were going to hunt first thing in the morning on Day 4. Jesse wanted to see how I hunted blacktail deer here, as that’s what he hunts in California. There was fog at first light, so I checked the skate instead. Something had been on there that broke or bit through the 150 lb monofilament line. Then we fished til about 10 am and caught a couple coho. By then, the fog had burned off near us, so I used the coho heads for bait and reset the skate. We anchored and went deer hunting.

I called in a doe at two of the three locations where I called, and Jesse loved it. Jesse got to see a deer come to the call, complete with lots of nervous snorts. It was so warm that I think the deer were sleeping in the shade. We got back to the beach at midafternoon, and went back out so I could check the skate. Nothing. We continued on trolling and caught more coho. We headed to the new island anchorage and processed fish on the way. I set the skate on the way to anchor. I cooked sauteed canned deer burger with bell pepper, tomato, cheese and spinach for dinner with salad and tortillas.

Today marked Jesse’s last day fishing and my last day fishing for the summer. This was my 48th day fishing this summer. I caught about twice as many king salmon, and about 2/3 of the coho, that I caught last year. I checked the skate and somehow shook off the 70 lb halibut on there. I sure didn’t mean to. When I saw it come up, I thought: finally, a good halibut on the skate that’s been dry all summer. And what a great end to a great summer. It was pretty quiet in the wheelhouse for the next several hours. I was not happy with myself.

We caught nothing at Gertrudis. Except a consolation chicken halibut we later had for dinner at the cabin, which was on one of the rods, riding along behind the downrigger release without tugging it loose, until we brought the rods up to leave.
We made a pass at Ignace, and caught nothing, even though lots of feed showed there.

It’s been a different season, for sure. Although the season has been tough for trollers who don’t venture far from home or their traditional fishing area, the boats that ran to fish chum salmon near hatcheries at $1.75/lb sound like they may have had a banner summer. And after hardly any pink salmon showed up at all over the summer, they came in all of a sudden and there were, incredibly, record seine catches in Sitka Sound. And at 60 cents/lb – double last year’s price.

So, the end to another fishing season with good friends in the nice country I choose to live in. I learned several new fishing spots where I can get out of a west and northwest wind, and these spots produced larger lingcod than other places that we bycatch while trolling for salmon. Lingcod has quickly become one of my favorite and easiest to prepare fish.

We lost Bob, who fished with me last summer, to pancreatic cancer over the winter. He fought the Bastard with Eastern and Western medicine, and he lived a lot longer than most. I talk of him often with the other friends who come to fish. And also lots of kind reminders of Sam on the boat, as we use the camping plates and silverware for dinner each evening in the galley, and I sleep under a sleeping bag he gave me each evening. End of 2026 summer fishing!

The Boys are Back In Town

My grade schoolmates Pat and Sean arrived on the ferry Aug 20. We slept in the next day because their favorite establishment in Craig doesn’t open until 10 am. We headed out later that morning, and started fishing. We caught a few coho at the island coho drag and had coho salmon for dinner after we anchored at the island anchorage.

The next day, we fished the same drag and caught a handful more coho. I kept a pink salmon for dinner as well, and the boys loved it. It’s really hard to beat fresh pink salmon – regardless of what any Alaskan might tell you. We anchored by the island anchorage again – the time we’d anchored in the same spot this trip.

On day 3, we were plagued by pinks at my favorite king drag, so we headed out to H.I.T.W. We caught a handful of coho there, and I got a lingcod. We had lingcod for dinner, and I think both boys had seconds. This was their first time eating ling cod, and it would not be their last. The salad greens from the store were a little past due for eating fresh, so I sautéed them with some sliced onion, and the boys liked that too.

On day 4, we tried to get to Ulitka, but on approach, the swell was too big, so we hung a right and fished behind a big nearby island that is in the lee of the NW wind- my first time fishing there. I caught nice ling cod, but we caught no salmon. So, we moved back to HITW, and the boys caught a few coho. We tried my favorite king drag again, but it was still one pink salmon after another, even using all my bag of tricks I learned while power trolling, such as fishing lures with no red on them, and fishing large lures. For dinner, I made fixings for burritos, including canned deer burger, onions, beans, some ancient pre-cooked Costco rice bowls, and some canned tomatoes, with tortillas.

We moved back to inside waters and tried the coho island drag. We caught a few coho and lost one in the first hour, then the place went absolutely dead. Not even a random pink salmon. So we left for town just after noon, as the boys were almost out of beer and other necessities. We topped up the fuel and water tanks on the way to the harbor. The boys got beer and other fine things, and I restocked salad greens and my near beer. The boys had a hard sleep at the cabin, and I slept on the boat in the harbor.

We left South Cove about 830 the next morning. We caught a couple rock fish trolling at Cruz Pass buoys. I caught a king salmon there once, so had to try it on our way north. We continued running north east, and fished by the island site of a former Tlingit community, but nothing there. We motored further northeast, and I idled shortly in the channel to show the boys the sacred shaman grave site that is, I’d say, one of the more significant sites I’ve ever seen.

I set a 2 hook skate at the confluence of some channels. After I let the buoys go, I thought maybe I needed to put more line on the longline after I saw the current dragging on the buoys. When I tried to pull the line back up, the line – halibut groundline, no less – parted – so I lost some gear. I think the line that looked good to my inexperienced eye must have been rotted, so more life tuition paid.

We ventured up into Sea Otter Sound. We trolled around at some of the locations listed in my fishing book, but caught nothing. Then we tried what I went up there for: to try fishing my shrimp trawl. I went to the only site I knew – where my friend Mike introduced me to it a decade (?) ago.

The first drag went great! I fished the trawl at about 275 feet, and caught a gallon of spot prawns. The next 3 trawls in practically the same drag were a bust. I kept hanging up the net, and caught nothing. The shrimp was more than enough for dinner in a dish with red onion, bell pepper, tomato and cucumber with salad, plus leftovers for lunch the next day. I set the skate with new skate line afterward, and we anchored nearby. I was really enjoying exploring this new country.

There was nothing on the skate the next day. We tried fishing a few places my friend who lived most of his life in nearby Edna Bay suggested, but caught nothing, so we ventured to another spot on the chart book. We caught a king salmon, some coho salmon, and I caught ling cod on the drag that ended right by a long bay that was our anchorage for the evening.

On Aug 19, I was up early and we back-tracked to the spot where we caught the king salmon, but nothing there. We were there now at the opposite tide as when we got the king yesterday, so I noted that. We fished to the point, and with the swell from the big ocean bearable, we kept on going southwest around the outside of the island. I figured we’d fish it in one direction and end up back at HITW.

The boys caught a coho and 2 big rockfish. At Cape Lynch, Sean and Pat were tending to a small rockfish on the starbard rod when I looked back from the helm to see that the port rod had released from the downrigger. The line was going out at about 45 degrees from the stern, with very little bend in the rod and no indication of a fish on.

I turned the boat towards the fish, rather than put the boat in neutral, to maintain sterage in the heavy swell, and clicked on the autopilot. I made my way back to the stern. I lifted the rod, which made a big bend in the pole. There was no throbbing to it, so I thought – must be kelp. I started to pull back and reel, pull back and reel, pull back and reel. Still, nothing that would indicate a fish was on there, except that the flasher never came to the surface. By the time I worked the fish close the boat, the boys were done with their side, and came over to see what was on my hook. The boat idled back over the line, so we were surprised when the flasher suddenly popped out of the water, followed by the cop car king kandy cut plug, which had slid up the line when the hooks released from the lure. By now, I suspected I had a halibut, and saw something brown behind the flasher. Then realized: that’s no halibut, but a big linger! A 35 lb lingcod to be exact.

I called to Pat to bring the big net and he netted the fish on the first try. I sure like the huge mesh net. I took it off the boat as I thought it was too big, but then returned to the boat just for netting bigger chicken halibut, big king salmon, and now, big lingcod.

The waves built up as we landed the fish, and the rain started in heavy. When I asked the crew if they wanted to keep fishing or retreat, they voted unanimously for warm and calm, so we ran the rest of the way around Heceta to the Maurelle islands and found calm anchorage in the islands. After I set the pick, we took care of the fish.

What an impressive fish these lingcod are. Teeth you don’t want to mess with. Built sort of like a pike for ambush. We had lingcod again for dinner. Our first repeat seafood of the trip. The crew’s new favorite fish.

Aug 20 was our next to last day fishing. I weighed anchor at 615 am, and cautiously felt my way for the first time through a little channel called Launch Passage. I put the track on the gps plotter so I’d have it for next time (if I didn’t hit bottom, of course). The trail took me through rocks and little islands. At the exit, rocks shown that did not show on the plotter navigation chart. I was grateful we were traveling at low tide when the rocks were exposed or I could easily have hit them. With a sigh of relief, we flushed back to open water in thick fog, and ran to Ulitka by radar and GPS.

Ulitka had about a 7 ft swell, but the boys said they were up for trying it. They caught a nice king, and released a few pinks, along with a coho with a bite out of its side. I caught a ling cod. In mid-afternoon, we returned inside of the cape, and I tied up to my personal mooring buoy there attached to the anchor that I hung on the bottom earlier in the summer.

My inlaws were out fishing and stopped in to say hello. When they left, we were enjoying a beverage in the evening sun on the back deck when we heard folks on the boat Grand Finale, anchored further out in the bay, hollering about something. A couple folks fishing in a raft near the boat landed a nice salmon, and high-fived each other. The woman squealing on the back deck of Grand Finale played a nice chicken halibut up on her salmon rod.

On our last day fishing, I was up early. The boys were still waking up, so I put the gear out for the first time this trip, and saw that flashers were rigged upside down! Yesterday, I’d told the boys to experiment with any lures they wanted, and somehow the flashers got flipped on the rod. Well, they caught a king salmon the day before, so whose to say which is the right way to rig a flasher??!? We caught a couple coho outside of the cape, then trolled to the inside of the cape, and kept going towards Steamboat Bay.

On the way, I put the boat on autopilot to go to the galley to put on a second pot of coffee. I was gone maybe 2 minutes, and hear a “thwack” in the back. I ran to the helm and saw I’d run us up on 45 ft of water and kelp with 70 feet of downrigger line out! We lost a cannon ball and all the terminal gear on one side. Just goes to show experience is no guarantor. Paying attention wins the day.

Thick fog then moved in, and I put the radar on. As we trolled inland, not being able to see more than a few hundred yards in the fog, a full grown humpback that seemed to have been sleeping suddenly blew and dove right next to us with it’s magnificent white colored tail, inside the kelp tideline I was staying to the outside of to avoid the kelp. Normally, kelp is the bane of my trolling existence, but in this case it may have saved us from running over the whale, which would not have been good for us or the Jeanne Kay.

We fished my favorite drag and caught nothing so pulled up the gear and headed for Craig City. Another great trip with the Bolivar Homeys.

Boats named Jeanne Kay and Craig AK docked at marina

August tradition

Tom arrived on his annual first week of August fishing trip. In the past, he’s brought his wife, daughter (a long time ago), and grandson (The Cheese). This year, the Cheese was off with his cousins, working a job with them poisoning ponds in Michigan, rather than going fishing with his Grandpa and me (I’m not kidding). So, Tom brought his brother in law Al, a career GM worker from Detroit, Tom’s hometown.

They arrived on the 130 flight from Ketchikan, and we were fishing at the coho Island drag at 3:30. After just a few fish with the last group of Peace Corps friends, I was hoping the cohos would move inside, where I could fish for them in calmer waters. I was not disappointed.

By 6:30, we were motoring to the anchorage with over a dozen coho. Lucky for me, Tom is now an experienced fish cleaner, and was able to keep up. All I could think of was that Al is ruined for life. He’ll think it’s always like this. I caught myself helping out a bit too much with the lines, and we almost ran aground. Crap. I’ve got to watch that. The fish – coho and pink – were thick. Fish were swirling at the surface like I’ve never seen. The coho were full of needlefish. Tom, a deacon in his Catholic Church, thought the luck might be because of all the prayers he said. I told him he needed to try swearing once in awhile so he could catch up cleaning. There were no other boats around.

We finished processing about 915 pm at the anchorage, right at sunset. I made pink salmon and salad for dinner. The boys had their take-home fish supply assured already. We could spend the rest of the week replenishing my freezer after I gave last week’s crew all the salmon Julie and I caught the week before they were here.

The next morning, we weighed anchor at 515 am and ran to my favorite king drag. We’d fish with larger lures and deeper if necessary. We put the gear down at 630 am. We caught 2 nice kings and 3 coho for the day. A welcome breather from the day before. As we motored out on the first day, Al said said he didn’t get a king salmon stamp to “save a few dollars”. I wasn’t having that, and had him get one online. That was a good thing for him. He realized when he caught the two kings that the few dollars were worth it, as I would have made him release them if he hadn’t.

By the end of the second day, we’d out fished our cooling capacity with the big kings, so we headed to town to offload. By 630 pm, I was wiped out, and fast asleep before 7 pm. I slept hard.

The next morning, we vac packed all the fish after sleeping in a bit. One of my Foodsaver vac packers kept throwing a red “liquid tray full” light, and these units will not work with that light on. Try as I might to dry everything, it would stay on. I searched the internet for help, and saw a thread about cutting the white wire to bypass the light. That worked! I’ve Craigslisted the several vac packers I have here, and with three of us vac packing, that sure speeded up the operation.

We headed back out about noon and had our gear in about 2 pm. We caught 3 nice coho, and lost the biggest one of the day at the net. We kept a pink salmon for dinner, and it was excellent as usual. We at one of my new spots behind an island in idle seas.

On day 4, I weighed anchor at 4 am for the 4 am high tide. We got a nice king at 515 am. Then the wind blew up, and we moved to a new spot for me called Hole in the Wall (HITW). On the way there, we saw two spectacular bull orcas that popped up right next to the boat. One of them has a distinctive notch on his dorsal fin, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for him.

I switched the lures to whole herring king kandy on one side, and a big lime green king spoon on the other, and dropped down to 100 ft from the standard 70 ft, to try to target kings and limit cohos and pinks . We caught a keeper king and a 22 lb king that jumped and jumped for Tom at HITW, along with 5 coho. We anchored at 115 pm in a new spot for me, so as to not overload our cooling capacity again, and processed fish for 1.5 hrs. So glad to find a king spot for NW winds with a nearby anchorage, as I really didn’t have a spot to move to when the winds come up at my favorite king salmon drag. Salmon trollers joined us later in the evening in the unique anchorage called HITW.

We slept in til 6am on day 5, and fished HITW all day in the lee from the NW wind. It was a beautiful sunny and breezy day. We released a few pinks, and that was it! On the last tack, we fished further east to some other islands, looking for a better anchorage, and we found one. As we pulled the gear to go anchor, we got a coho and a rockfish. We set the skate outside the anchorage. We went into the cove, dropped the anchor, and the 3 of us went to shore in the punt to beach comb. We got a nice hike on the beach. Tom found a troll gaff in a driftwood pile – his second troll gaff find in Alaska. Years ago he found one floating when we were trolling near Juneau, and it may still be one of the gaffs on the boat now. I told Al to watch his footing as we climbed around the rocks between driftwood beaches, as we were a minimum 3 hours away from a competent doctor. Doctor Tom cracked a grin. Al thought I was the George Carlin of Alaska. I cooked the rockfish and a piece of the coho for the boys for dinner, and I had leftover coho from the night before.

We checked the skate the next morning, and nothing. Fishing was dead at HITW, so we moved to my favorite spot for 2 coho, and then got blown out of there when the NW wind picked up. We ran back to the coho Island, and set the skate on the way. We picked up a few coho at the Island. Al started cleaning fish under Tom’s supervision, and he did a good job.

For the final dinner on the boat, I cooked canned venison, with salad, rice, onions, and mushrooms. It was the last night eating on the boat for the trip, so I tried to finish up the vegetables. I anchored by Muerta Island for the first time, and it was pretty good in the NW wind. The Bruce anchor I put on recently holds well.

The last morning, there was nothing on the skate. Again. It’s been a tough halibut year for Uncle Mark. We fished the Island for a pass and released a few pinks, but no cohos, despite lots of feed. We caught a chicken halibut we kept for the last dinner tonight.

It’s been a different year. Although there’s feed around, humpback whales seemed scarce this July and August, and the coho and king salmon fishing has been scatchy in the inside waters I fish. There are reports of good fishing and feed offshore, so maybe that’s where the whales are, too.

Another great trip with Tom and family.

Foodsaver Vacuum Sealer Tray Full Red Light won’t go off HACK!

This post may be the biggest read I’ll ever get.

I have a Foodsaver V3825 vac packer. The liquid tray full light came on, and try as I might, it would not go off, until it finally did. Then it happened again. I saw a DIY post that was only on the preview of the actual string, and that worked. Here it is.

Unplug the machine.
Take the screws out of the bottom of the machine, which allow the bottom plate to come out and expose the wiring to the liquid collection tray.
Cut the white wire going into the bottom of the tray.
Now just check the tray once in awhile to empty it, but it does not stop the machine from working.

You’re welcome.

Fishing is a Sci Fi Movie

Well, I broke my brother in law’s rod yesterday fishing with him. But it’s part of the end of a good story.

We were fishing on the outside coast. My brother in law’s son in law was in town, so he invited me to along on their fishing trip. The weather looked good that day, then was gonna blow up. I rarely go outside to fish but the seas looked okay so I gladly went along.

We were fishing for an hour and hadn’t caught a king salmon yet. Then my nephew gets a big fish on the one rod. As I bring in the other rod, we got a double! My fish feels a bit weird by the way it’s fighting – like maybe it’s a halibut or something.

My nephew continued playing his fish, and slowly works the fish closer to the boat. All of a sudden, we see his line and his flasher whizz by behind the outboards in the back of the boat – and I mean whizz by. Faster than any fish I’d ever seen. Turns out there was a good reason for that.

Out of nowhere, about 20 feet behind the boat, a HUGE sealion bull jumps vertically almost fully out of the water, with the big king salmon in his mouth! It happened so fast it took me a second to process what we just saw happen. It was like something out of a sci fi movie.

Then the sea lion ran with that fish across the props and broke off the flasher and lure and was gone!

I then bring my fish up, and it’s swimming, but sadly, it had no tail. A sea lion had bitten off the back of the fish, but it was still alive and swimming. As I lifted the rod, the end of the rod broke off and then the line broke at the flasher, so we lost all that gear, too. So, 2 kings on, and no kings in.

We might not remember the fish we caught this day, but you always remember the one that got away.

Four men smiling on a boat near Kodiak, Alaska

39 year reunion

Ray, Tim and Dave were here for 4 days of mostly boating and watching fishing rods. Not many fish. Julie and I went to help my brother in law check crab pots the day before she left, and I had some of the crab with me for dinner the first night. We had half of the one coho we caught for dinner on day 2. Then a chicken halibut for dinner on day 3, because we caught no salmon. And on day 4, we had a pink salmon – as the big and only king salmon we caught during the trip could not be butchered by law until we got to the dock…. that’s it for the fishing details.

Tim and Dave were a year ahead of Ray and I as Peace Corps fisheries extension agents in Sierra Leone in the about 1987. I’d seen Ray once since we’d been back, but not Tim or Dave. As is always the case, it seems, although we’d not spent time together in almost 40 years, we were immediately at ease with each other, having shared what we all agreed were the longest 2 years of our lives.

I picked them up at 630 pm from the ferry. An hour or so later we were underway on the tug to an anchorage. I realized about an hour out of town that I’d left my phone in the truck, distracted by all the catching up with my friends on the drive in. Oh well. We had dungeness crab for dinner. I asked them if they wanted a half or whole crab, and all of them said whole. And they ate every bit of it. After a few beers (and a near beer for me), we hit the rack. I was a bit worried they might feel a bit crowded on the boat, but all were game and said they slept well.

The weather blew up the first night and the anchor drug a bit, setting off the anchor alarm. This woke Ray at his bed at the helm, but Dave said he didn’t hear it sleeping in the forecastle. Tim, sleeping across from him, said he heard the alarm, but nothing of the wind and rain whipping the boat as a front moved through. I put my clothes on and let out more scope on the anchor line and that fixed us. By morning, the front had moved through.

We fished my favorite drag the next day in the rain. We caught one coho, had another good strike that came off before someone grabbed the rod, and that was it. We set my halibut skate, and anchored in a new anchorage. We had coho salmon fried in butter with salt, pepper and rosemary for dinner, and again, the boys cleaned their plates.

The next day the weather was a bit less rain, but still slow fishing. We fished by the high island and the island near town. Just nothing! I got ahold of my friend Mike through Tim’s phone – why yes, I happen to be coming out to the cabin right near where you’re fishing tomorrow! Can you get my phone, I asked? Sure, he said! A while later he texted – do you have a PINK phone case – that when I knew he’d found it in the truck! He was soon out with his family to the cabin. Part of his crew idling to the beach had my phone in their skiff, and as I swung by on the tug, Tim held out the net and they dropped it in. We caught a small halibut that I normally would release, but this one, I thought, would feed all four of us, and our prospects for a salmon were looking poor for the day, as we only released one shaker. So that fish was dinner. I melted some butter, dredged each fillet in the butter, then dredged the fish pieces in almond flour to bake. Then the oven decided not to work. A first, as it has always worked just fine and I use it very little. The pilot light worked, but no gas came into the heating tube to light. So, I fried the fish in butter. I was worried the almond flour coating would come off, but it held on surprisingly well. Not a morsel left after dinner.

We anchored that evening in a brand new anchorage for me. Steve told me this spot was better than were Julie and I had anchored in the same area, and he was not wrong. It was flat calm in there. As I anchored, I saw a buck on the beach. Then another one joined it! We saw movement behind them, and it was a pair of sand hill cranes. The two bucks rubbed antlers a bit, but didn’t aggressively spar. Then, whatta ya know. The two cranes joined them, feeding right next to them. We didn’t bother any of them being there, it seemed, as they paid us little attention.

My neighbor had fished next to us by the island near town before we got the phone from Mike’s crew, and then headed further out towards open ocean. I texted my neighbor after we ate dinner to ask if he found any fish today, and he said no, but he’d heard there were fish at Hole in the Wall, a place I’d not fished before as it’s pretty exposed to the big ocean on the outside.

The next morning we tried my favorite spot, and nothing. There were two seiners fishing at the point, which meant we’d have to negotiate around them if we stayed where we were. It seemed like every charter boat in the area was cruising buy us and headed to Hole in the Wall. Must be they got the same intel. It was flat calm, so we decided to make a run to Hole in the Wall and try it.

I texted Mike and got info on fishing the area as he’s fished around it quite often. We arrived there in about an hour, and dropped our gear. We followed the sport and commercial boats trolling along the shore of the islands. It was the best day yet for weather, with sun, a breeze, and calm seas. At about an hour into fishing, as we cleared the island to the west, whammo! Dave grabbed the rod and this wasn’t another false alarm or kelp. We did the firedrill to get the other rod reeled in, and both downriggers up and cannon ball weights aboard. Then we pulled up the drag buckets so there’d be no opportunity for a tangle in them. By that time, Dave had played the fish beautifully to the boat, and I admit I was a little gun shy with the landing net now after losing 3 fish last week with Julie. But we got this one on the second try, and it was a beauty. About 18 to 20 lbs or so. Ocean bright and fat. I don’t remember being more relieved for a day’s fishing. Ever. That made the whole trip to catch a beautiful fish on the last day. The closest thing was fishing with Joel and Clay 3 or 4 years ago and not getting much action til the very last day. Anyway. Whew!

We caught an ocean bright pink salmon on our next pass, then tried Ulitka. The seine fleet was fishing on the outside waters as their opening coincided with favorable weather. It was spectacular seeing all the boats out there fishing. We got to watch 2 seiners working at Ulitka. We caught nothing at Ulitka, and we heard a mayday on the radio. A crewman on a seiner had gone overboard when setting the seine net, and by the time they could get to him, he’d drowned. They called the Coast Guard for a helicopter and it sounded like they did CPR. The Coast Guard got a helicopter on the way – from Sitka, I presume – and I knew it would take awhile to get to our area to the seine boat.

The swell was getting to us at Ulitka, so we tried HITW again. I look north, and there’s the helo! The boat in trouble was not far away at all. When the boat captain started talking with the pilot, he said they’d got the crewman breathing and he’d come around. That was a relief to everyone in earshot. The helo dropped a rescue swimmer, who went aboard the vessel to assess the crewman, then the helo lowered a basket for the crewman and rescue swimmer to get in, and away they went. Wow.

We caught nothing at HITW and it was getting later in the afternoon. It was about a 3 hour run to town, so we decided to try one last pass at my favorite spot on the way in. Seiners were also working there, so we didn’t put our gear out til we were passed them and half way up the drag. Not long after our lures were working, we went through a big ball of feed. I turned to watch the rods. The one between Ray and Tim got a fish on, but they were yaking and oblivious till I yelled. By the time Ray got the rod out of the holder, the fish was there for just a second and gone. Kind of par for the course for the week!

We trolled the rest of the drag, and Ray managed to break an Ugly Stick rod just trying to pull it out of the downrigger release. This is the second time this has happened to me – I broke the first Ugly Stick the same way. The only painful part of it was that I bought these at Log Cabin in Craig for real money. They weren’t garage saled or thrift store bought like most of my rods (and possessions in general). When I was a kid, Ugly Sticks used to brag about being “unbreakable” with a lifetime guarantee, but when I tried getting ahold of someone for the first rod, I spent a lot of time getting zero response, so I gave up trying. Live and learn.

We checked my skate on the way home for more nothing. Once we got around the corner to the deep water for town, I put the boys in charge of the helm with the auto pilot, and fried up the pink salmon. The fish was just enough for the four of us, and not a crumb was left. The boys cleaned up the galley afterward, and by the time we got to town, the boat was ship shape. We got their gear offloaded and headed back to the cabin.

We yaked for an hour about the days on the boat. They said they had a fantastic time- fish or no fish- just being out on the water for several days. Sounds like they’ll be back. I specked them out on the shower and futon operation and the beds for the night. Since they would occupy all the available bunks, I headed for town to sleep on the boat.

I was back to the house before 5 am. Luckily, I had plenty of fish in the freezer to share with them, and they were incredulous at getting so much fish. We headed to the ferry and got there right as passengers were boarding. We said our goodbyes and they were soon off to Ketchikan.

I got back to town and got right on my next task to complete before Tom and his brother in law get here in a few days: an oil change for the Jeanne Kay. It took me the usual too long to get that done, and I left then engine area opened up and will clean up the boat tomorrow. Such a great trip with these long lost friends.